Free Talk Corner

Adelina Marini

Germany's and France's finance ministers will appear today before MEPs from the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee of the European Parliament to be heard on current issues. The hearing of finance ministers from the EU is turning into a tradition the European Parliament intends to impose. On November 12th, was the hearing of Spain's Finance Minister Luis De Guindos and before him were the minsters of Hungary and Belgium. The hearing of Wolfgang Schauble and Pierre Moscovici will start at 1500 and we will provide live updates on this website.

3 December 2012 14:44

Adelina MariniGerman FinMin Schauble started first with the words that the situation with the German economy is not what it was. There is some slowdown, he added.

3 December 2012 15:19

Adelina Marini#ECON The solution to the #eurozone problems should be step by step, Mr Schauble said. According to him, what had to be done in terms of the 17 euro countries and the 10 non-euro countries is to prevent the differences between them to become bigger.

3 December 2012 15:22

Adelina Marini#ECON Impressive German punctuality! The finmins were given 7 minutes for introductory remarks and Mr Schauble ended on the 7th minute.

3 December 2012 15:26

Adelina Marini#ECON France's European strategy is based on 4 main pillars: solving the situation with the programme countries; banking union; growth pact; competitiveness, said French FinMin Pierre Moscovici, underscoring that Paris's major priority would be to diminish its debt. Currently, France's indebtedness is above 90%.

3 December 2012 15:31

Adelina Marini#ECON Moscovici again underscored that a major element of the solution of the eurozone crisis is the mutualisation of debt.

3 December 2012 15:32

Adelina Marini#ECON On the occasion of tomorrow's Ecofin (and today's Eurogroup), Wolfgang Schauble recalled responding to a question on the banking supervision, that it is important the ECB independence to be protected. It is also important to ensure equality between the euro and the non-euro countries. He added that when it comes to banking supervision, the expectations are too high.

3 December 2012 15:38

Adelina Marini#ECON To a question of one of the biggest critics of the Troika in the Europarliament, Portuguese MEP from S&D Elisa Ferreira, Wolfgang Schauble said that the Troika worked well - Ireland was returning to the markets, Portugal is to follow. He admitted that the problems of Greece were much deeper than were seen initially.

3 December 2012 15:44

Adelina Marini#ECON #Greece elite failed the Greeks, not us, the German FinMin said in terms of the criticisms that the austerity programme was inflaming social discontent. Schauble added that apart from Greeks who waved flags with Nazi symbols, he saw Greeks who thanked Germany.

3 December 2012 15:49

Adelina Marini#ECON Regarding the debt buy-back initiative, which is one of the elements of the programme for #Greece, French FinMin Moscovici said he was not a big optimist. Everything depends on the efforts of the Greek authorities, he added.

3 December 2012 15:53

Adelina Marini#ECON "Oh, dear!", started his answer the German FinMin, asked to comment on the growing rich-poor gap. "We do what we can", he continued, saying that the EU cannot be blamed for everything, nor the governments or the global situation. If we want sustainable and durable growth, this will not happen with huge public debt. If we don't take measures, we will turn into what Eastern Europe was in the beginning of the 1990s, Schabule said.

3 December 2012 16:05

Adelina Marini#ECON To a direct question whether France's wish for a mutualisation of debt meant eurobonds as well, Pierre Moscovici affirmed but added what the government of Sarkozy defended too - eurobonds should be the end of the road, not the beginning.

3 December 2012 16:12

Adelina Marini#ECON "I don't have sufficient imagination to see how a non-euro country can be a member of the #ESM", Schauble said to Danuta Hubner who asked how the non-euro countries can be involved in the banking supervision.

3 December 2012 16:22

Adelina Marini#ECON French FinMin Pierre Moscovici said he was in favour of a separate budget for the #eurozone, based on own resources, among which FTT was possible, as well as "a little bit" of corporate tax. Regarding the democratic accountability, another Europarliament should not be created, may be a committee within the EP would be a good idea, he said.

3 December 2012 16:34

Adelina Marini#ECON The #eurozone was the right decision and if it had not been taken 10 years ago, we would have had to taken it now, said Wolfgang Schauble. It is important to deal with the challenge to keep the 17 and the 10 non-euro countries together, he added.

3 December 2012 16:39

Adelina Marini#ECON The hearing of the finance ministers of France and Germany has just ended in the economic committee of the European Parliament. The interest to the two ministers was huge, the house was full and the questions were many. What drew attention was that most of the questions were directed to Germany's FinMin. More details in the upcoming days on this website. Have a nice evening!

Adelina Marini#EMU Moscovici: The proposal which non-euro area countries will not be able to refuse is not of the type as in the movie "The Godfather"

6 December 2017 13:56

Adelina Marini

#ECOFIN EU finance ministers have adopted today a package for taxation of the digital economy

5 December 2017 14:41

Adelina Marini#ECOFIN Dombrovskis: The Council has also approved a revised recommendation to #Romania demanding additional corrections of the budget deficit. The Council is concerned about Romania's fiscal sustainability